Monday, December 27, 2010

Tony did a stupendous interview this morning on KQED: Michael Krazner's Forum. He was the first guest on an hour-long new series featuring local heros. It was electrifying! http://www.kqed.org/radio/listen/

Merry Christmas! Hard to believe that we're finally here, standing atop the hump of the Christmas holidays rounding the bend of the end of one year and the beginning of another. Full moon on the Solstice, lunar eclipse -- the biggest lunar eclipse since 1376 (!!!) -- and in this case, bigger IS better -- hail, lightning, rain, snow, unprecedented weather conditions, unprecedented political conditions, unprecedented economic dips and dives and flickering spikes, unprecedented this and that, and yet, today Christmas, the sky an array of stripes of sunshine and rain clouds, warm and cold like a hot fudge sunday. As far as the dog is concerned, it's just another boring day by the fire, waiting for a the magic word "walk" to be uttered from someone's lips followed by the word "dinner."

In the mayhem of it all, Lust for Justice celebrates its life of one month and 5 days of being out in the world. I'm already planning the 2nd printing in anticipation of a good distributor who will place it in bookstores everywhere. To date, Amazon and Kindle are it's big name purchase centers, along with Modern Times Bookstore, and Green Arcade Bookstore in San Francisco, The Depot Bookstore/Cafe in Mill Valley, and Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz. Also, Kaleidoscope in Bolinas CA.
I have a great PR person, Sally Douglas Arce, who is doing a bang up job of getting the word about this book out there. Lots of media interviews: The San Francisco Chronicle, The Bay Guardian, The Marin Independent Journal, KCBS, KQED, KPFA. You can check them out Online.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The night of the book reading on Dec. 19th at the Depot Bookstore and Cafe in Mill Valley CA was a joining of forces: the natural elements with the bold moxy of the human spirit. A hearty crowd gathered together, bucking the elements of hail, slashing rain, thunder and yes! LIGHTNING! Lightning Rod Publications never misses an opportunity to remind the people gathered at these readings that they are in the presence of the energy LIGHTNING itself, from which this publishing company derived its name. As I stepped outside in the downpour to bring in armloads of books, a prominent bolt of lightning illuminated the way to my car. I smiled inwardly and thanked it for the convenience of greater visibility. And in a sense, that's what this book is about: greater visibility in the storms of fear and deception and the blinding deluge of every diversion to truth imaginable. Maybe lightning itself, which all will agree has gotten a bad rap in the past for its potentially destructive powers, is in fact the great illuminator that cuts through the elements, grounding the forces of the higher consciousness to the earth.

Tony and I joined forces for a rousting evening. A man who was sitting in the front row when Tony was speaking said he just had to keep making expansive adjustments within himself to accommodate for Tony's force field. It was a great evening. Everyone left charged with good energy.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Another book event tonight. This time a reading in Mill Valley at the Depot Bookstore. Picture the situation: Day 3 of a gargantuan rain storm scheduled to last for 10 days. I hi-tailed it out of San Jose the morning after the seminar to get over the twisting mountainous road on Hwy 17 to Santa Cruz before the storm hunkered in for real. By the time I arrived at my family’s house on my old farm, the rain was pummeling down. I stayed indoors for 2 days, cozied around the fire. The wind rattled and roared outside, throwing tantrums, and hurling branches and apples about like play things. Last night it finally managed to down the electrical power lines, leaving everyone without electricity. I drove directly into this melee today, over downed power lines and a tangle of fallen branches. The hard decision was whether to risk the direct mountain route to San Francisco with slippery roads, horrible visibility, oil slick S-turns, speeding trucks and possible accidents, or to risk the coastal route with long deserted stretches and possible landslides. I opted for the latter because I love the tumult of the sea in storms, and if I escaped the landslides, at least there was a good seafood café in Half Moon Bay that promised fresh crab. The event was at 7. I left at 11 for what normally was a 2.5 hour drive but ended up taking over 4 hours. A fine crab Louie salad was the reward for the risk-venture.

Tony was waiting at the Bookstore when I got there. He was obviously jubilant to rendezvous again. He commented about the seminar: “What were you wearing?” he said. “You looked resplendent!.” We spoke of the KQED-TV interview coming up on the 27th. I told him they only wanted him, not both of us. “There’s no way that’s going to happen” he said. “You’re coming along too.”
The bookstore was running low on books, so I went out to the car to get more. As I stepped outside into the hail and rain there was a roar of thunder, immediately followed by a single bolt of lightning quite close by. Lightning Rod Publication strikes again! My nephew commented, we NEVER have lightning here. NEVER! It’s not New Mexico.

Tony generously gave himself over to an entire evening at the bookstore. In spite of the weather, the place filled with a good crowd of the brave and the fearless. Once again, no one wanted to leave. It was the night before Tony’s closing argument in court tomorrow back in San Jose. The man is indomitable.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

I'm in CA now. The Santa Clara Trial Lawyers Seminar has come and gone. It wasn't as I expected, but these things take on a life of their own. Here are some details of the process.

Too crazy busy getting ready to fly CA early tomorrow morning to respond to most anything but personal emails. This book ambition of mine has caught me half-cocked, wishing I were better organized, wishing I were the speeding bullet it demands of me, wishing I hadn’t waited till this stage in my life to blast open a career with all its demands. I need a secretary, a chauffeur, an accountant, a personal trainer, a housekeeper, a computer person, a wardrobe consultant, an organizer, a cook and companion, all the money in the world and TIME! TIME! TIME! As it is, I’m a 1-woman circus, spinning in circles with papers flying and phones ringing, and ravens barking for their breakfast, and my computer having a nervous breakdown, and piles of clothes of what to wear here, there and everywhere overflowing my 1 carry-on bag, and photos for Nicholas’ B-Day, and the bird water frozen and remember to wash the sheets and clean the frige, and don’t forget to make a detailed list of everything and everything for the new housesitter whom I’ve never met, and stock up on birdfood, and get the directions to that hotel in San Jose for the Trial Lawyers Seminar where I’m a guest speaker, and mail off 60 books at the post office with the OMG lines that go out the doors and round the block because it’s Christmas! Holy Kamole! Whatever was I thinking?

Rather than get jerked around any more by my endless frets, I decided to change my focus to gratitudes instead and found that basically I had lots of reasons for gratitude: the car didn't break down on the way to the airport; no accidents on the freeway to hold up morning traffic; the lines at security were minimal; I didn't get gropped or overdosed with X-rays but rather given a clean report as I quickly passed through without a glitch; no one stole my bags on the conveyor belt while I was delayed waiting to pass through the X-ray machine; the plane was ontime; I had a pleasant seat mate; the weather was merciful for mid-December; the plane change to San Jose was smooth; the rental car was one of the best ever: a Toyota Corolla; I didn't get lost in rush hour traffic getting to Palo Alto; enjoyed a lovely dinner with my life-long friend; my room at her house was sweet and comfortable, and I managed to reserve a room in San Jose for after the seminar. So given what all could have gone array, nothing did.

Then the seminar: Again and again I tried to formulate and mentally rehearse what I would say and how I would enliven my talk. I was scheduled to speak last, following Mark Geragos. I was excited about it.
Tony pulled one of his infuriating numbers of saying he would appear, then reneging at the last moment, then saying he would come only if I wanted him to, to which I said YES! YES! YES! But at the same time I told the host not to hold his breath. I did a long and good interview that was videoed earlier that afternoon. The other presentations were long-winded and all of a similar multi-million dollar ilk which made me think I should change my talk entirely to fit this legal assembly tort lawyers. No criminal defense lawyers were present. Mark Geragos never showed up, which was a crashing disappointment as he was the person around whom I had designed this trip. But I trudged bravely forward none-the-less and had Manu come from Mill Valley to San Jose with his friend Christian to help me with book sales.

So now the big moment was here. The talks droned on and on. Everyone ran overtime. Once lawyers get the mic at a podium you can't shut them up. Finally they called my name, and said “the last speaker, Paulette Frankl, will speak about her new book Lust for Justice, but first, we have someone even BETTER ...” The crowd hushed and Tony Serra gallumped up to the podium! He had come in straight from a hard week in court on a gruesome murder trial, and he looked pretty gruesome himself, utterly exhausted. His skin pallor was grey-green with dark raccoon circles around the eyes. He was totally drained. He spoke briefly about what it was like to be a criminal defense trial lawyer on a murder trial, then, for the first time, he located me in the crowd and made hard eye contact with me. I beamed him pure energy in the exchange. He sucked it up and one could see the color return to his face. His whole demeanor became vitalized and for the brief duration of his talk he absolutely WOWed the room. Everyone felt his charisma; he had us all spellbound, and laughing and enthralled. Manu commented that here-to-fore he thought my art of Tony was exaggerated and over-the-top but now he saw that it was spot on. Tony was sensational! He really came through. Then he was gone before I could even say hello, goodbye or thank you. I sold just enough books to cover the cost of my room at this hotel. But given the fact that there were only about 35 people present, and none of them criminal defense lawyers, it was all good. Just to see Tony be his old self like that was worth the whole trip. He truly is lightning in a jar. The whole thing is on video. He was GREAT! I got a good interview out of the thing, and good seed energy was planted in the legal community.

Tony and I will be doing a reading at the Depot Bookstore and Cafe on Throckmorton Ave in Mill Valley CA tomorrow, Sunday, Dec 19th at 7 PM.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

I'll be speaking at the Santa Clara County Belli Trial Lawyers Seminar on Dec 16th at the Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose, CA from 3:30- 5. Other speakers include Mark Geragos. Tony Serra will swoop in from his murder trial in San Jose to make an appearance and sign books. The contact person for this event is John Shepardson: email: shepardsonlaw@me.comJohn Shepardson, Esq.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Long time civil rights and defense attorney Tony Serra has represented some of the most iconic and controversial public figures who have challenged the status quo over the last 4 decades: including Huey Newton Chol Soo Lee, Judi Berry and members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. While winning a great number of these cases, Serra has taken a personal vow of poverty and has served prison time for being a tax resister. There is a new biography about him. It’s called Lust for Justice: The Radical Life and Law of J Tony Serra.